Door control



Sept. 14, 1943. J. T. LIVING TON 2,329,476

DOOR CONTROL Filed Jan. 28, 1941 FIG. I

FIG. 2

FIG. 4

r/as

INVENTOR J. 71' LIVINGSTON A TTOIPNEY Patented Sept. 14, 1943 noon common I a J hn "ti vmstm-ranwoe t- W stern. Electric N- as gn t nee p r d New York; N- 31., a otp a n of N w York a; 1941; Ser a Ne 3 6 29 Application January 2 j eo i s, (cue- '49;

This: invention relates to door controls, and more particularly to closer devices forjflre doors. mm doors employed to close and seal entrances and exits torooms are in many instances equipped with'door closing devioes,for example as shown in the Patent 1,170,884 of April 18,1916 to Anderson, to hold doors in open positions "by a holding means including a i-usible llnk; The said holding means, as in the patent, may include a latch held in a position by a resilient arm including the fusible link to" engage a'n abutment of the closer device to hold the door assoeiated therewith in open; position; but upon melting the fusible link, as in the case of fire,

the force in the resilient arm to control the latch is removed and the door is allowed to close, It is frequently desirable to check such cqntrol means to determine whether or not it would be effective in closing the door in case offlre. With a closer device of the typeshown intl'ie 'aforer- 3 mentioned patent, such testing has been accomplished by melting the fusible link but this not only xe w ppl ing new I g each test but entails considerable labor.

' .An object o! the invention is to provid a door control particularly for fire doors and including fusible links after a'simple, efllcient and practical mechanism tor checking the emciency of thecontrglg. j v I With this and other Objects inview, their;- 'vention comprises a door control ingllldilfig an arm normally urged in a direction, and through the aid of a link, to move a door to close a passagew y, an butment being carried b the arm f r engagement with a le eh urg d by' a h lding means including a t sible link'ito render he door control in p ative and including an element e u ble to remov the hol ing f rce. on. h latch t test the operativeness of the doortontrol; Other obiects. and advantages will be apnalrent from the following de aile desoliption when taken in conjunction withethe" accompan ing drawing." wherein l r f Fig. 1 is a top plan view of the door control shown in solid lines holding a door in ope po ition and in dotted lines with he door in c ose position; t it v y I Fig, 2 is a fragmentary side elevationel View taken alon the line 21-2 of Fi 1;

. a fr gmen ary detai ed view iilustrat n the holding and rel as n positi ns the element for contr lling the lat h;

Fig. 4 is& side elenattonal link,and to p t Fig. 5 15a top plan view of the fusible link; v. Referring now to the drawing numeral in desview e; a n w ignetes a wa l. for examp e'oi zoomt' n which H is a p n p vidineen entrance or e thereto he open ng i surr nded-by a metall c from U upon whie a re door I s hinged at one side as at l5.

Th door 14 is equipp d with a doo ch k; or elose 'devi w ich inc ud s a s rin aet eted spi d e 11 to w ich one e d of an arm I 15 fixed.- The other end of the arm is apertured to re? eei e a bolt 0 a th up er eee h re diac nt h s rad r t ns 2 to ln eren ag sim ar serrationsli of an abutment -24 to allow for relative adjustme oi the abutment with re? s ec to the arm a d for the positive holdin o th ahut en and he arm in des red adjust P0531035 One d of a link I5 is als connected to-the outer end of the armqlfltthrough the aid o the bolt 20, th s c nn c ion being fr f r r lat v mo emen of the link and rm durinz openin and, osin of thedoor. The th r nd of the li k 2.6 is mou d o a pivo p n sup? ported by a bracket 28, the latter being mounted upon he upper portion of the frame I 4 A latch 30 is pivotally Supported at 3| near i center by h l nk 2 and hasn't, eontour, s illustrated in F g: 1., w th a r ss. 3; f rmed to reoeivet e o nded out r end t the vabutm nt Z4 and aconvex projection 33 over whieh'the end of the abu ment m s ride eenterin th ree ss. The opp it end o the atch 39 has a testm e eme 3 vo ed e s inne end, asat 36;. t en o the la ch and ea nin a pin 31w n g the latch nd i it th movement o t e e ement c n er k ise abou i Pivot, An. apertur 3 z xanctiedi the e ement ,35 near the ou e end thereof ee ive a ro atab m mb fill-ha ing n e l rged ead port on a the lo er endyth r o n a wa he e edw en een r e w the upp o t n of and res ineuno the eleme r e e member!!! isap rtn dat 4.3 to r ceive one nd f a s in .4 wh h, ex end t ough-th ap rture 4.3 and is-bent as at 45 to form positive connection with the rotatable member. The opposite end of the spring) is connected to an eyelet 45 of a turnbuc l 41, he he e e 8 o he turnbuckle be ng onne tedto a link 49 of a ehain 5.0, the opp si en of t e hain bein fixed at it to.

by such material to form a solid unit in the form.. t

of a link except when heat is applied to melt the fusible material. The fusible link 53 may be removably secured to the link .49, and will remain connected thereto during the manual opening.

and closing of the door I4. The bracket-54' has 'a Q' lip 62 of suflicient length and contour to permit free disposal and removal of a fusible link in connection therewith but which will hcldthe link against displacement therewith when the resili ent arm in which it is disposed is slackened during the closing of the door. 7 I

With the door control mechanism the door may be manually moved into open position as-illustrated in solid lines in Fig. 1 and while being moved into this position from the dotted line position the abutment 24 will swing arcuately with the arm l8 about the pivot or bolt 20, the outer end of the abutment evenually riding over the projection 33 and into the recess 32, where it will be held by the latch through the force of the spring 44. When in this position it will be observed that the connection of the spring 44' with the element 35, that is, the rotatable memberlfl, is positioned beyond dead center, that is, beyond the center of the pivot 36. The door when once moved into open positionwill be held in this position by the latch until it is manually started toward its closed position or'until heat causes destruction to the fusible link 53. This mechanism is capable of in'definie use but in order to determine the efiiciency of the mechanism in closing the door should there be a fire theread- Jacent it is desirable to frequently test the mechanism. Heretofo-re in order to test the efficiency of the mechanism the fusible link has been destroyed by applying heat thereto, thu removing the force of the spring from the latch,a'nd freeing the closer device to move the arm18 counterclockwise with the spindle I1; and through the connection of the link 25, move the door about its hinges to close the opening II. By doing this, that is, by melting thefusible link, it is necessary to remove the remaining parts of the link from the bracket 54 and the link 49, inserting a new fusible link and determining whetherjor not with the new fusible link the resilient arm including the spring 44 will apply suificient force for the latch 30 to hold the mechanism in openposition. This is necessary due to the possible variations in the lengths of the fusible links, Such variations requiring adjustment of the turnbuckle 41 to again arrive at 'the desired force to be applied throughthe spring 44 to the latch. During the normal operation of the mechanism or door control the element is in the 'positionshown in Fig. l, to cause the spring 44 to act upon the latch 30 to hold the mechanism including the door closer device I6, the arm l3 and the link 25 inoperable to move the door to closed position once the door is opened to the solid line position indicated inthis figure. If sufficient heat were applied to the fusible link 53, such as in the case of fire, the fusible mate rial60 and BI holding-the portions 'and 56 tointo closed position and this may be readily done by moving the element 35 clockwise beyond dead center to free the force of the spring from the latch and to render the mechanism free for operation. After the mechanism has been tested 1 the element 35 may be moved counterclockwise until the stop pin 31 locates the element in a position so that the spring 44 may again apply a holding force to the latch 30. With the aid of the element 35, the testing operation is simplified, requiring only the aid of an elongate instrument to aidin reaching the element to move it from its normal position to its releasing position and back into its normal position. This eliminates the necessity of the person making such test theneed of a step ladder, a torch to fuse the fusiblelink, tools to remove the portions of the fused link and a supply of new fusible links in addition toa'llof the labor coupled with the testing of the mechanism through the destruction of the fusible link. The use of the element 35 eliminates the necessity of all this labor and expense, which are greatly multiplied when many mechanisms require testing. Y.

The embodimentof the invention herein disclosed is merely illustrative and may be modified and departed from in many ways without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as pointed out in and limited appended claims.

What is claimed is:

1. A door. control comprising mechanism operable to normally urge a door from an open position to a closed position and including an abutment, a latch actuable to hold the abutment against movement and the mechanism against operation, an element plvotally supported by the latch, spring means connected to the element to apply a force to the latch to actuate it when the element is moved into one position, the force solely by the being removed from the latch to render the mechanism operable when .moved out of the said position, and means to locate the element in the said position. 2. A door control comprising mechanism openable to normally urge a door from an open position to. a closed position and including an abutment, a latch actuable to hold the abutment against movement and the mechanism against operation, an elementpivotally supported by the latch, a spring, and a rotatable member connecting the spring to the element for movement of the element into a position to cause the spring to apply a force to thelatchto actuate it and for movement out of'the position to remove the force from the latch to render the mechanism operative.

. 3. A door control comprising mechanism open able to normally urge a door from anopening position to a closed position and including an abutment, a latch actuable to hold the abutment against movement and the mechanlsm against operation, an element plvoally suptported by the latch, a spring, a rotatable member connecting the spring to the element for movement of. the element into a position to cause the spring to apply a force to the latch to actuate it and, for movement out of the position to remove the force from the latch to render the mechanism operatlve, and means to locate the element in the said position.

4. 'A door control comprising a mechanism constructed Ior operation to normally urge a door from an open position to a closed position and including an abutment, a latch actuable to hold the abutment against movement and the mechanism against operation, a resilient arm including a fusible link adapted to render the arm ineffective when fused and a spring to apply a force to the latch to actuate it to hold the mechanism against operation, and means in connection with the resilient arm to cause removalof the force of the arm from the latch to free the mechanism for operation to test the spring in the efficiency of the mechanism in closing the door.

5. A door control comprising a mechanism constructed for operation to normally urge a door from an open position to a closed position and ineluding an abutment, a latch actuable to hold the abutment against movement and the mechanism against operation, a resilient arm including a fusible link adapted to render'the arm inef- Iective when fused and a spring to apply a force to the latch to actuate it to hold the mechanism including-an abutment, a latch actuable to hold the abutment against movement and the mechanism against operation, a resilient arm to apply a force to the latch to actuate it to hold the mechanism against operation, and a testing element pivotally connected at spaced positions to the latch and the arm and movable into one position to cause creation of the force in the arm to actuate the latch and movable into another position to cause removal of the force from the latch to free the 'mechanism for operation to test the efficiency of'the mechanism in closing the door.

JOHN T. LIVINGSTON. 

